Goal #5 Circular solutions

The ever-increasing extraction and processing of virgin raw materials, are responsible for 50% of all climate emissions, 90% of biodiversity loss, and 90% of water scarcity in the world, according to the UN. The best way to counter these planetary challenges is to increase the recycling of raw materials by establishing circular material flows.

Goal: Through collaboration with partners, we develop new and refined circular material flows to increase material recycling. By 2030 these will contribute with an additional 1 million tonnes of CO2e in avoided emissions per year.

Already now, our existing recycling solutions yearly contribute with 1 million tonnes of avoided emissions, and through our new circular solutions, we commit to contributing with an additional 1 million tonnes of avoided CO2e emissions per year.

During 2024, we took several steps towards practical realisation of our circular solutions. Some notable examples include the inauguration of a flat glass recycling factory in Örebro, Sweden. The CO2e emissions savings for the new flat glass are approximately 50%. Another example is our Future Solutions Hub in Umeå, Sweden, a testbed for exploring new circular solutions.

We have also made major investment decisions in circular solutions. Two plants will be built to recover phosphorus from incinerated sewage sludge utilising the Ash2Phos technology developed by our innovation company EasyMining, one in Germany and one in Sweden.

In addition, a demonstration plant will be built in Estonia to recover materials from ash left from decades of burning oil shale for energy. Through new technology, it is possible to produce calcium carbonate, and critical raw materials such as magnesium, silica, and aluminium. 

"Ragn-Sells contributes to resolving planetary challenges through innovative circular solutions that detoxify material streams and bring back critical resources to society – over and over again.”

Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ragn-Sells Group

All of these investments are in circular solutions that recover important raw materials from waste, with a huge potential to avoid climate emissions.

Challenges during 2024 include technical problems. In 2023, Ragn-Sells inaugurated the world’s first Ash2Salt plant to convert fly ash from waste incineration into commercial salts. During 2024, the plant has had technical problems with some components in the facility. Our focus now is to get the plant fully operational and scale up the Ash2Salt technology. 

In 2025, we will continue to develop new circular solutions, identify relevant data points, and develop targets for our contribution to avoided emissions. 

Goal #3

Resource focus instead of waste focus